NORTH CHICAGO, Ill. (WLS) — A group of parishioners out of Waukegan led a prayer vigil at Naval Station Great Lakes on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Gov. JB Pritzker continued to push back on President Donald Trump’s apparent plans to deploy the National Guard to Chicago.
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Taking their Sunday services from Waukegan’s United Giving Hope sanctuary on the road on Sunday morning, a small group of parishioners, including young children, embarked on the 6-mile walk to North Chicago’s Naval Station Great Lakes, where federal agents are expected to set up shop as soon as this week in anticipation of large-scale immigration enforcement operations.
“These detentions, these operatives, these raids have an impact on human beings,” said United Giving Hope Pastor Julie Contreras.
While sources tell ABC News that operations could start as soon as Friday, on Face the Nation on Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem refused to go into specifics.
“I won’t disclose the details because they are law enforcement and investigative folks that are on the ground there, and I want to make sure we keep their security our number one priority,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “We’ve already had ongoing operations with ICE in Chicago and throughout Illinois and other states, making sure that we’re upholding our laws. But we do intend to add more resources to those operations.”
While on the same show, Pritzker spoke about a potential National Guard deployment to accompany federal immigration officials.
“If they do, they’ll be in court pretty quickly, because that is illegal. Posse Comitatus does not allow U.S. troops into U.S. cities to do, you know, to fight crime, to be involved in law enforcement. That’s not their job,” Pritzker said. “National Guard troops, any kind of troops on the streets of an American city, don’t belong unless there is an insurrection, unless there is truly an emergency; there is not.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson took it a step further this weekend, signing an executive order called the “Protecting Chicago Initiative.” It bars the Chicago Police Department from helping federal authorities with civil immigration enforcement or any related patrols, traffic stops and checkpoints during the surge.
The mayor reassured the public at a West Side festival, saying, ‘We will not be intimidated.”
“We are standing up to Donald Trump. Are you with me? We’re going to stand we gotta stand firm. We’re gonna stand strong,” Johnson said.
Back at Naval Station Great Lakes, Contreras led her group in prayer. The group included those in charge of the base in her petitions. She admitted that it was hard to get many of her regulars to show up on Sunday. Their fear is too great.
“This morning, a mother came and she said others tell her, ‘Don’t come. They will see you. They will target you.’ Can we promise her tomorrow? No, we cannot,” Contreras said.
Meanwhile, over in the west suburbs, an immigrant rights group held a protest outside the ICE staging facility in Broadview on Sunday.
The group wants the facility shut down. They say people are being held there for days at a time, and do not have access to beds or showers.
After a protest at the facility last month, an ICE spokesperson told ABC7, “Any accusations that detainees are treated inhumanely in any way are categorically false.”
And while Pritzker said the Trump administration has not communicated their plans to send National Guard troops to Chicago, North Chicago’s mayor told ABC7 on Friday that he has been led to believe that some 300 federal immigration agents will be making the city and the surrounding area their home as the administration’s plans unfold.
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